Remains of four Second World War airmen recovered seven decades after B.C. crash

Shelley Jordan

Clearance Diver and Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technicians Master Seaman (MS) Kenneth Jones and Petty Officer 2nd class (PO2) Shawn Goodine use a chain saw and pick to remove a large downed tree at the site of the Avro Anson aircraft crash on May 6, 2014.

Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/DND, Cpl Brandon O'Connell

May 30, 2014 - 1:45 PM

VANCOUVER - More than 70 years after a Second World War aircraft disappeared on a training flight over B.C., the wreckage has been found and four servicemen.

The B.C. Coroners Service says what was left of the Avro Anson was discovered last October by a logging crew working on a remote mountainside near Port Renfrew, B.C., on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The site is barely 50 kilometres west of the Sidney airport, where the twin-engine propeller aircraft took off on Oct. 30, 1942.

Human remains were found at the scene, but bad weather prevented recovery of Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. William Baird and British air force Pilot Officer Charles Fox, Pilot Officer Anthony Lawrence and Sgt. Robert Luckock.

Officials with the coroners service and Department of National Defence returned to the heavily-forested mountainside on May 5 and removed, analysed and identified the remains.

Canadian military officials and Britain's Ministry of Defence have contacted surviving family members, and plans for an internment ceremony are under discussion.